Check this out!

So unless you've just been under a rock, I can't imagine anyone not have hearing of "The Help." The book is fabulous and the movie, which I saw for the first time yesterday, is awesome! Check it out - and I do mean both movie AND BOOK!

http://thehelpmovie.com/us/

Looking Forward to 2012

2011 has been a wild ride for us. I think I have said that a bazillion times in the last month or so, but I'm saying it again. This blog is basically a recap of our 2011.
It began in January with me pregnant and extremely sick with HG. (For those of you not familiar with HG, I encourage you to google the HER foundation and read more about it). That lasted for two months where I pretty much spent the entire month of February confined to the 3rd floor of Rush Hospital, when finally on March 1, 2011 our baby girl, Miley Gayle Swancey made her apperance in to the world!

6lbs 11oz

We finished up March with Memphis turning 2, and then April rolled around with some of the wildest weather this area has seen in a really long time. 

Tornado roared through Enterprise

We made it through May with very little drama -- and then came June. This is when our lives seemed to completely unravel. The month began with me having a biopsy done and a cancer scare. I found out I had to have a hysterectomy ASAP for something that would potentially turn into cancer if not treated soon. Then, just 14 days before surgery, my husband lost his job, and we lost our health insurance. This summer wasn't a summer to us. We kept up happy faces for our kids, but we felt like we had the breath knocked out of us. We were terrified. We didn't know how the next bill would get paid, where the next diaper would come from or how we were going to put food on the table. We held on with all we had and thanks to the support of friends and family we somehow survived and made it through one day at a time. 

This photo was taken about an hour before Johnny found out he was jobless.

Desperate, I began searching high and low for a job. I accepted one doing something I never in a million years thought I would do, and to be completely honest didn't intend to keep doing once my husband found another steady job. Within a month of being there, I fell in love with it and now I couldn't imagine doing anything else. The job has truly saved our lives and many of my coworkers have become a second family to me. I have found much success with this job and thankfully my husband found a job within a month of me starting mine and finally we began to see the light again.

This photo was taken the day I accepted my new job and it gave me hope

I soon regained my health insurance, had my surgery and am feeling much better and happy to say no cancer was found! We saw Noah turn 4, celebrated Thanksgiving and gave our kids a great Christmas despite the fact half of us were sick. 

Miley's First Christmas

One thing is for sure, through it all I know it could've been way worse and I am so blessed to have a great support group of friends and family who have helped us along the way. I feel as though I've grown closer to God in all of this and have learned what it's like to really have your faith tested. We are moving forward and looking forward to what 2012 is going to bring. One way or another, we are determined no matter what the circumstances, to make 2012 our year.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

It's been an eventful year to say the least. We have had a lot of downs this year but the few ups we have had been meaningful and given us the strength to keep going. Thanks to all of our friends and family old and new for supporting us this year when we needed it the most. We believe we have made it to the light at the end of the tunnel and are very optimistic for 2012 to be the best year ever.

I hope all of you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm sure I'll blog again before then, but just in case I didn't I thought I'd go ahead and say it. These are a few of my latest pics of my beautiful babies!

Life Lesson for the Day

If you haven't checked out Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas," you should. It's really good. It is a play, but it's really good. Tyler Perry to me, is a brilliant individual. I am a huge fan of him, and I love all of the Madea movies and plays. They are hysterical, but at the same time they always have a great message worked into them. One of these messages really impacted me late last night.

As I was watching this Christmas play, there came a scene where Madea and a few other women were sitting on a couch discussing jealousy and how they didn't understand why people just couldn't be encouraging to each other instead of tearing them down all the time. Madea made a comment that has stuck with me and I wanted to share with all of you because I think it it something that we should all take to heart. The comment was that God has given us all special talents and we are all here for a reason. Instead of tearing one another down or being jealous of the other's talent, go out and do your talent to the best of your ability and be proud and supportive of the person that may happen to do something better than you because maybe that is why they were placed on this earth.

It may sound silly, but I thought it was a true statement and real words of wisdom. Words we should all strive to live by.

That is my life lesson for the day!